“GOD SAVE
THE KING”
|
A sermon preached at Readings: 1
Tomothy 2:1-7, Mark 12:13-17 |
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made
for everyone--
for kings and all those in authority,
that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
(1 Timothy 2:1-2)
At the
end of a week in which we have seen protesters
clambering onto the Buckingham Palace balcony,
and others invading the House of Commons,
today’s lectionary epistle speaks to us of our Christian response
to monarchy and those in authority.
St
Paul, writing twenty to 30 years after the Resurrection
is not very interested in matters of Church and State –
he expected the end of the world very shortly,
so there was no need to plan for such things.
The
anonymous writer of 1 Timothy
is a follower of Paul but of another generation.
He is writing another half century on.
By now the end of the world is no longer expected daily,
and so he has to come to terms with the place of the Church in history
and the relationship between Church and state.
So
we read 1 Tim 2:1-2.
1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession
and thanksgiving be made for everyone--
2for kings and all those in authority,
that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
What
are the implications of prayer for the leaders of the nations?
1.
Pray for everyone.
That includes the pagan rulers.
Contemporary with our epistle were the Gnostics –
a sect who basically said that Christians were
to withdraw from the world to see inner knowledge and wisdom.
The Unsaved were not worthy of prayer or
consideration.
Thankfully we take it for granted today
that our faith is to be lived out on the world stage –
But maybe we still need to beware of narrowness in
prayer –
We should pray for all people -
equally for Christians and non Christians,
oppressor and oppressed, powerful and weak, protester and police.
2.
Pray for order.
We pray, says 1 Timothy,
“that we may lead a quiet and godly life”.
1 Tim knew that to destroy the Roman Empire
would be to invite the dark ages to rush in
on the heels of internal strife and external ravaging hordes.
So 1 Tim prays for peaceful
rule.
3. But
to pray for individual rulers and for stable government
is not to give uncritical acceptance of status quo.
The Pastoral Epistles (Timothy and Titus) have been
so accused –
JL Houlden talks of their petit bourgeois
support for current values and powers.
Maybe they do fall a little into that trap – it is
always a danger -
But there is no way 1 Tim supported Roman rule in
every way –
Remember he is writing only 10 years
after Domitian’s fearsome persecution of the Church in 96 AD!!
We need t read this passage from 1 Timothy
in the context of the rest of scripture.
We need to recall how often the OT prophets
protested against the King
and threatened calamity if he did not mend his ways.
Prayer for those in authority
does not necessarily imply prayer that they remain in power
with their current policies.
As Christians we will always pray
“God save the King, God save the Queen”
But we will not always pray
“Send him/her victorious…long to reign over us”
So yes – Pray for everyone, including the Emperor.
Yes, pray for the fabric of society to be maintained
and anarchy kept at bay
But no – to accepting every Goverment policy.
And therein of course lies the eternal Christian
dilemma –
How to offer support for the powers that be
which is genuinely prayerful and supportive,
and yet also prophetic and critical?
Perhaps we might look at a few concrete examples.
1. The invasion of
the House of Commons
by pro-Hunt Protesters this week
Almost
every serious commentator
has recognized that this sort of action threatens anarchy and disaster –
the writer of the Letter to Timothy sees the danger of anarchy.
Unlike the Roman Empire,
we in this country have a fair degree of democratic power
Our
democratic processes are by no means perfect,
(they still favour the rich and powerful)
but they allow a good bit more legitimate democratic action
than did the laws of ancient Rome.
To
undermine the laws of the state is something
which 1 Timothy did not even recommend in the years
following Diocletian’s persecution.
It is hard to see that he would have had much sympathy
with pro Hunt demonstrators threatening the rule of law.
2. Bonhoeffer’s Plot to overthrow and assassinate Hitler
in 1944
I
suspect there would be a lot more disagreement here.
A
Biblical case can easily be made suggesting Bonhoeffer
was wrong.
Turn the other cheek,
Do not take an eye for an eye.
But
we need to look at our passage in the context of other parts of Scripture.
Biblical teaching on supporting law and order and peace
cannot be divorced from constant emphasis on care for the poor, the needy.
Peacemaking
in the Bible is seen as an active struggle for justice,
not a passive acceptance of the status quo.
There
are no easy answers here.
We
have to follow some Biblical texts at the expense of others.
Christians
have often interpreted Scripture differently on this.
When
it is not an eye for an eye,
but one death for the deaths of 6 million Jews,
does that make a difference, or is life always sacred?
Timothy
says pray ….so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives –
the “we” has to include those persecuted by authority.
In
Hitler’s Germany, praying for those in authority –
at least in the sense of praying for their continued rule –
did not produce peaceful and quiet lives for the Jews.
The
peace we pray for is not the false peace
of a selfish and unawakened conscience,
but the true peace which can only come in the context of love and justice
.
We
will doubtless reach our own verdicts on specific historical cases –
but we can all agree that to pray for those in authority
is not necessarily to pray
“Send her victorious….long to reign over us”.
3. Margaret
Thatcher’s Request for a Service of celebration
following the Falklands War
You
recall how at the end of the Falklands war,
Margaret Thatcher requested Church leaders
to provide a service of joy and thanksgiving for the Falklands Victory.
The
Church in the end offered a service of remembrance, not celebration.
That
reflected the Church’s determination to say
(a) We want to hold up all our
nation and her leaders in our prayers
(b) We want to show prayerful
support for the British people
in a situation of crisis and bereavement
(c) We refuse to provide a
jingoistic service of thanksgiving
which would go beyond prayerful support of the nation and her leaders
to uncritical support of government and policies.
So
today let us pray for peace
Not
just peace for the rich but also for the poor,
Not
just for the privileged but also the downtrodden.
And
to that end let us pray for our rulers,
that they may rule in such wise manner
that true peace prevails.
AND A FINAL FOOTNOTE.
That
which we pray for in the life of the nation,
let us live out in our Church and our homes.
And
oh that every national leader
should look at us and our Church and say
“Now there is love, joy, justice and peace -
Let us as a community live as they live.”
Thus
may we proclaim the Gospel
to the rulers for whom we pray.